Lost Season 5 Premiere Offers Many Clues

So Lost has finally returned. It whipsawed us all over the place during its two hour premiere, but it was a good whipsawing.

BTW, spoilers galore follow…

There was so much going on that it was difficult to take in – and don’t get on me about missing this detail or that because this is just a rough overview. The real meat and potatoes should take place in the discussion below.

The episode, titled “Before You Left,” opened with the mysterious star of all those Dharma Initiative videos in person, as one of those videos was being shot. It seems we’re back in the 1970s (or whenever it was that took place) and they’re just getting started on building/setting up the Orchid station. Now here there are three interesting things worth noting:

Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies), the bearded physicist who was on the boat appears in this scene looking just the way he does today.

The large circular cog that Ben (Michael Emerson) turned in order to “move” the island was already there, behind a rock wall when the Dharma Initiative arrived on the island.

They throw us a bone and actual use the term “time travel,” letting us know that we’re not hallucinating while watching the show.

We have Hugo/Hurley (Jorge Garcia) accused of murder over the fracas in the “safe house” with Sayid (Naveen Andrews) in a drug-induced coma thanks to their attackers. Hugo still sees people who died on the island clear as day (who aren’t really there). Before passing out Sayid gives Hugo one fateful bit of advice about Ben “whatever he wants you to do – do the complete opposite.”

Ben and Jack (now cleaned up and no longer looking like a homeless guy) team up and Ben determines that the entire Oceanic 6 need to get back to the island or there will be devasting consequences. Jack (Matthew Fox) doesn’t think that Kate (Evangeline Lilly) will want to return, especially with (dead) Claire’s now three year old son.

Kate may be more amenable due to the fact that someone has gotten a court order to verify if her son is in fact, hers.

Back at the island we get their point of view from the flash of light seen at the end of the season 4 cliffhanger – turns out it’s happening repeatedly and they’re jumping randomly forward and back in time. They jump back to before the plane even crashed, then they jump back to around present day, and then to some unknown period in time where the British “owned” the island.

Widmore confronts Sun (Yunjin Kim), demanding to know what she meant when she said they had common interests: She wants to kill Ben. Might make it a tad bit difficult to get her to come along back to the island as well.

Towards the end we see what MAY be an earnest Ben for the first time (but with him, who knows, right?) imploring Hurley to come with him back to the island – but Hurley, no doubt being too smart for his own good decides to turn himself in to the police instead.

Here’s what I liked about this episode: It finally looks like we’re over the hump. We had this huge upward curve where we were getting to know the characters but the story was a complete mystery. It got to the point in season 3 where fans started complaining about no forward story movement – to their credit, the producers took that to heart and season 4 started giving us a faint sketch of the big picture. This season it looks like we’ll finally start seeing some answers.

Oh, there are still plenty of mysteries including:

Are the survivors moving back and forth through time or is the island? Does it matter?

If the island is just moving through time, why did it vanish?

What happened to Claire?

What is young Walt’s role in all this?

Why does Widmore want the survivors of the flight killed (does he want the island)?

What the HELL is that black smoke monster?

etc., etc., etc.

Sure it’s still cutting forward and back in time and in different locations, but I’m getting a sense of everything being interconnected, and connecting to things we’ve seen and have happened previously. It’s like a huge pile of loose string slowly tightening to where you can start to see the outline of something and how it all works together.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if when the series is over and its all available on DVD/Blu-ray that there will be a specific non-airdate order in which you can watch the episodes that will make the whole thing make more sense.

Since they have a target end date for the series (season 6, 2010) it’ll give them space and time to really plan it all out and have it come to satisfying close. I’m looking forward to this season based on tonight’s episode.

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Michael Midnight 6 years ago

Do you guys remember back in Season One when Sawyer and Kate find the caves/lake area and find those two skeletons? I remember one of the writer/producers saying we’ll find out who they are. I wonder if this time travel business will be the answer. Good synopsis Vic. I love the premiere got me so “lost,” so much so that I can’t wait for more!

Although I was more than satisfied with the Season 5 opener, (keeping me interested throughout). I’d have to say that a small part of me was disappointed in the fact that we have yet another epic story (time-travel) to follow. After having more than the show’s fair share of unexplained storyline, smoke-monster, the ‘world-saving’ hatch, ‘Jacob’, and just the island in general, the time-travel just adds yet another thing onto the heaping pile that has to be explained.
That being said, I am very much interested in how they’re going to continue this season. With the ‘epic’ story arc their going for, I can see them doing some very creative writing between the time-jumping survivors and the island’s other inhabitants. The best part, (for me at least) was the point where Hurley was pulled over by an illusion of Ana Lucia. The fact that they’d bring back a character from season 2 just to prove that Hurley is either a ghost-whisperer, or that he is in fact insane (or perhaps talking to the island), makes me more than optimistic for this season.

So, long story short, I’m surprisingly excited about this season of lost.

Best Premiere yet! I was so pumped to see Marvin Candle/ Edgar Halliwax/ Mark Wickmund in the opening scene. And Faraday with Dharma drilling into the Donkey Wheel room!! This is the type of show that gets better every time you re-watch it because of the connections and things that were insignifigant at the time.. Anyone who finds the show “too confusing” or hard to follow, I bet if you watched it over from the beginning, you’d find it even more enjoyable.

I couldn’t resist, guys. I promised myself that since I was in the UK and it wasn’t showing here until Sunday that I would just wait. But my love for the show and my anticipation just got too much for me and I caved and decided to watch the show online. Okay now onto what I thought about it….

I frickin’ LOVED this premiere, on par with any of the four others (and even better in places). Like all of the premieres it was a bit information heavy compared to regular episodes but that’s understandable – it’ll become clearer as the season goes on.

Right from the outset it gets right into the thick of things, eventually giving us more insight into the Dharma initiative videos and Dr Marvin Candle that we’ve seen oh so much over the series. And how awesome is it that the frozen wheel was already there, presumably allusive/unknown to even the Dharma Initiative? Just awesome.

I think the biggest thing we’ve gotten introduced to is the whole jumping back and forth in time thing. We’ve already seen it in sorts with Desmond but instead of just in one person’s mind we are now into the “physical”. On that note I wanted to a run a theory by you guys – ok, so the Island has “moved” in what we now know is in time but where to? My theory is that it has moved to round about the time where the Oceanic 6, Ben and Locke are i.e. three years forward from when we saw it move. And so when the Oceanic 6 (and Ben and Locke) get back to the Island it will be like they’ve only been gone a couple of hours/days/weeks (to the people who were left, anyway, it will seem that way). And I think my other theory will play out – that Locke, after being brought back onto the Island while dead, will be brought back to life (just as Jack’s dad was when he was on the plane, dead in the coffin – remember the coffin was broken open?). I think Locke has so much faith in the Island that he trusts Richard when he told him he needed “to die” in order to “save it”. I really love the way they’re going with the time travel thing – as a concept time travel is absurd but the way they’re handling it makes it believable within itself.

As far as the woman in the church who Ben was talking to at the end goes – could that be Daniel’s mother? Even though Daniel said to Desmond that she would be in Oxford, I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possiblity that she is in fact Daniel’s mother just because of the calculations she was doing i.e. that’s what Daniel does. But what she has to do with the bigger picture I don’t know. I thought she was just a figment of Desmond’s imagination when we first saw her last season but perhaps she is an important factor in the whole time travel thing.

I think Daniel being back in time to when the Orchid station was being built is fairly easy to guess why – he’s figured out a way some time in the future to choose when to go back to (remember he was trying to figure out “exactly when they are”) so he can figure out what to do or, perhaps, find out more about the Dharma Initiative in general.

One thing that this premiere stirred up again is why is it so damned important that all the Oceanic 6 (and Locke, of course) get back to the Island? Is it because it was “meant to be” and they disrupted that by leaving i.e. bad stuff subsequently happens if you hinder fate? Do they all have to go back to, sort of, restore peace?

That’s all I can think of just now (:P), if anyone else has any other points that came up in the premiere let it be known and I’m sure some worthy dicussion will come of it:-)

We had another time loop event last season with Ben when he found himself kicking some butt and when he asked what date it was, it really blew my mind… so much so that I can’t remember what the date was, but right then, in the middle of last season, I knew we had a time travel show on our hands.

Now on to more important things: What Is The Black Smoke??? Don’t Make Me Come Down There ABC! Erg, arg.

My one problem is the beginning of the first one with the Dharma dude. That was the worst Lost intro ever – not because of what’s going one, but because of how stupidly bad the dialogue was.

What the hell was he saying to that miner about time travel, harnessing energy…really? why would you talk like that, saying those things to the miner? that whole first 5 minutes felt worse than a B-Movie. Luckily everything else was good.

But did anyone else notice that the white-haired lady Ben was talking to at the very end was the same lady that Desmond met in the jewelry store, in season 3 I think, when he wanted to buy the ring for Penney? She was the one who told him he couldn’t buy the ring because it wasn’t SUPPOSED to happen.

There are a few Island mysteries that stick with me–they don’t seem that crucial but I’m really curious.

* The whispers and Walt apparitions. I’ve been looking over S2 and when Walt visits Shannon he keeps saying “shhh” and if she wouldn’t have gone running and screaming (shh) she wouldn’t have died. The whispers sometimes happen before a bad event, but otherwise they don’t seem to have a real pattern–except most of those who hear them NEVER tell anyone else.

* The big deal about infections and pregnancy.

I look forward to jumping back in time so we get to see the Black Rock, Widmore’s ancestors, Rousseau’s infected crew, and “the incident” that Marvin Candle refers to.

* The Hurley Bird. Okay, this emerald owl looking thing swooped down on a bunch of losties where Hurley actually asks,” Did that bird call my name?” But in S1, when they are going to the Black Rock to find some dynamite, we had the same thing but there was no comment on it. I’m serious–this one really bugs me–I can figure out theories for most of the mysteries, but this one blows my mind.

I do hope that the big full series box set makes use of some of the blu-ray technology to make seamless chapter jumps for a chronological showing, just to see if I am right about what/when/how some thing have happened.

@ Kevin Coll “I beleive there is a hatch on the island or maybe on Earth that is hidden that connects the island to Earth no matter where the island may be in time, space and geography.” <- I agree that the island’s hatch is connected to Earth through “a portal” that’s like Ben uses when he ends up in Sahara desert. And let me remind you of the room/box that is found in one of the Dharma buildings(I guess it was S3) which is repeatedly used by Ben. Locke’s father was in this exact room but he didn’t know how he get there. So he somehow teleports through time and space
Also in the last episode(3rd ep. I watched a moment aqo) Locke is searching for a way to get back to the others/real world but the whole island has changed it’s location that he can no more use the old parameters to leave the island(like Oceanic 6 left it or Widmore’s boat arrived.) So he now needs to find this room or actually he can remember it considering his father’s “magical” arrival.

Ideally all the Oceanic 6 will go back to Island even Kate but her and Sun will be the most apprehensive and will create a lot of drama before eventually going.

Whidmore has been on the island before which we know – Ben and him had that exchange. He may be one of those British soldiers we saw in this episode.

So where I am going with this?

Personally I beleive the Island is mirror of Earth. This potentially strings into phyics and the idea of mirror matter theory. The island is protected by electromagneticism because it is a moon or another planet that is connected to Earth much like Narnia is or Wonderland.

I beleive there is a hatch on the island or maybe on Earth that is hidden that connects the island to Earth no matter where the island may be in time, space and geographically. The island has moved in time as well as location before hence why the Blackrock is there, Ecco’s drug plane, Rousseau’s expedition team, Desmond’s boat. The hatch will most be called the Lamp post station or something similar.

The Smoke Monster fits in to this theory in that the island being a mirrored moon or planet to Earth, the smoke monster is a being that is natural to the island thus taking on the properties of the island hence the humming and buzzing much like the electromagnetic sounds wwe heard when Ben turned the wheel or when Desmond turned the failsafe key.

The smoke monster looks like a squid or octopus because being the planet is a mirror the island would be underwater in Earth’s world so the monster is mimicking the same life it sees which would be underwater creatures like squids and octopus.

Time Travel is only a cusp of the sci-fi Season 5 and 6 will have.

Desmond is also the Island’s constant hence why he is so important and Faraday knows that. That’s why MS Hawking would not let Desmond get the wedding ring to marry Penny. She knew if he had done that he would never have left and ended in the island and he never would have turned the failsafe key thus the island being destroyed and it being connected to Earth – Earth would have been destroyed too.

Also The Constant was the title of DEsmond’s centric episode in season 4.

Ultimately the show is exploring good vs. evil and duality which is also an important part of mirror matter. Faith vs Science. Whidmore is someone who was born on the island and moved to Earth – he wants control of the island for the dark faction. Hence why Micheal Abaddon works for him – which biblical Abaddon is a bad thing. Richard is a light guide and he guides Locke and Ben who are coincidentally both men born of women named Emily and of earth and then moved to the island.

Aaron will play a role in the dark side later on – he is a person born on the Island and moved to Earth like Whidmore and like Alvar Hanso – who may be the baby who was in the beginning of this Season 5 episode. The Dark faction is looking to take control of the island from the light faction.

Lastly, the island moving is why throughout time and cultures Atlantis, Taurus and other mythical places pop up. The mythical island where Apollo was born – may be the island our Oceanic survivors are on.

Also I am thinking Sawyer and Juliet may be the Adam and Eve of LOST.

Anyway thats some of my thoughts that I compiled based on a wonderful theory that unfortuantely I could never take credit for.

google – moon mirror matter theory he is the real genius who I beleived has solved LOST.

The Key here is the ability to manipulate the electromagnetic force. People who are “special” – like Walt in the psychic sense are attuned to electromagnetism and are able to see events on the island or do “psychic things” on the island because of it.

The crashing birds, for example, are likely a result of Walt changing the EM field around himself. (birds rely on EM fields for navigation.)

In agreement with mind/body dualism, the whispers seem to be disembodied souls.

I think it is a hatch or a portal. Remember Juliet said in repsonse to the Oceanic people having a boat – she said “great they could sail around the island for hours in circles” The submarine was obviously not how they would get back but rather would simply take them to the Looking Glass station.

By the way, I like the new season, but the dialogue has become clumsy. For example, do they have to say the name of the person they are talking to in every frigging sentence? Check the scene when Alpert removes the bullet from Locke, and count how many times he says John. I know this seems blah, but once I start noticing such things it can actually ruin the whole thing. Also things like when Kate says “We’re going on a vacation, baby”, and then: “Say bye bye, baby.”

Re: The Smoke Monster
As I recall, Rousseau’s mad-dog boyfriend revealed (right before she blew him away) that it was part of the security system protecting the substructures on the island. We’ve seen it morph into various things when it attacks…so what I conclude from this is: It’s a cloud of NANOPARTICLES.
FROM THE FUTURE!!